On Saturday, October 11th, WWE returned to Perth, Australia, for its big event, “Crown Jewel.” The event was headlined by Seth Rollins looking to finally get a win over Cody Rhodes with the prestigious Crown Jewel Championship on the line. This is the one night a year when the two top champions, in the men’s and women’s divisions, go at it to crown that year’s Crown Jewel Champion.
We also saw the show kick off in a big way as Bronson Reed took on Roman Reigns in an Australian Street Fight. Also, Tiffany Stratton took on Stephanie Vaquer for the Women’s Crown Jewel Championship, and John Cena faced off with AJ Styles in what would become a legendary match, in their final meeting ever. So, on a stacked event with big matches, what were the top three moments of the show?
3. Jey Uso Accidentally Screws Roman Reigns
In the opening match of the night, we saw Roman Reigns take on Bronson Reed in an Australian Street Fight. Despite this fight being in Reed’s home country, Reigns was the big babyface in this one. This became a personal rivalry for Reigns, as Reed was a thorn in his side for the past few months, leaving him lying on multiple occasions, even taking his shoes.
Reigns looked for a bit of payback in this one, and it seemed like he was going to get it. However, when you face off with Reed, you have to know that Bron Breakker is not always far behind. During the match, when Breakker made his presence felt to help Reed, Jimmy and Jey Uso came down for the save and took out Breakker to even the score for their cousin.
However, what happened next was nothing short of an unfortunate accident. As Jey was gearing up to spear Reed through the table, Reed moved out of the way and sent Uso crashing through Roman through a table set up in the corner. This allowed Reed to hit a Tsunami on Roman and win the match. Reigns was visibly upset with his cousins after the match, even telling them he doesn’t want to see them until “Christmas.”
2. The Crown Jewel Champions are Crowned
In the first of two matches for the Crown Jewel Championship, we saw the Women’s World Champion, Stephanie Vaquer, do battle with the WWE Women’s Champion, Tiffany Stratton. Vaquer became the Women’s World Champion when she won the vacant title back at “Wrestlepolooza” in September, by defeating Iyo Sky.
Fast forward a month, and she had to do battle with Stratton to prove which top women’s champion would reign supreme. In the end, Vaquer landed a corkscrew splash on Stratton to pin her and win the 2025 Women’s Crown Jewel Championship. This was a very fun one between two of the top women in WWE today. Vaquer continues her magical run, but it is now time to decide the 2025 Men’s Crown Jewel Champion.
In the main event of the show, the World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins battled the Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes. This was a personal one for Rollins as he’s yet to be able to defeat Rhodes entering this match. Now he had a chance to right those wrongs and become the second-ever Men’s Crown Jewel Champion in history.
This was a fantastic main event between two of WWE’s best. However, did we expect anything different? In the end, Rollins uses the Rolex watch, which was gifted to him by Cody Rhodes, to knock out Cody, and proceeds to hit two stomps, including one from the top rope, to earn himself the victory and the first career win over Rhodes. Rollins and Vaquer stand tall to end the event, showing that RAW is the superior brand at the moment.
1. John Cena Defeats AJ Styles After an Instant Classic
In arguably the biggest match on the show, we saw John Cena take on AJ Styles in a last-time-ever meeting between the two men. This is a rivalry that started all the way back in 2016. Styles, who was fresh off being the face of TNA Wrestling, made his debut in WWE, and fairly quickly faced off with the man who was the face of WWE, Cena. They put on some classics back then, but Saturday’s match was much more special.
Cena and Styles had a bona fide match-of-the-year contender. Everything about this match was just downright perfect. Cena and Styles paid homage to many of the men who helped shape their careers in this one. Cena paid respect to men like Rusev, Bray Wyatt, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, The Miz, and Undertaker. Whereas AJ paid respect to men like Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Sting, Frankie Kazarian, and even Shawn Michaels, with moves of all the names above being used.
In the end, Cena hit a Tombstone Piledriver followed by an Attitude Adjustment on Styles for the three-count. What a match. With this win, Cena now only has four dates remaining on his 2025 Farewell Tour. While it hasn’t been perfect, it’s truly time to soak it all in now. We are getting very close to the greatest of all time riding off into the sunset.
